HPE claims to bring world’s most secure industry standard servers

Bangalore: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) revealed new standard servers with the introduction of its next-generation ProLiant portfolio, which is claimed to be world’s first most secured.

HPE said it is the first vendor to put silicon-based security into its industry standard servers, addressing firmware attacks, which are one of the biggest threats facing enterprises and governments today. Building on this new secure foundation, HPE also announced advancements in software-defined infrastructure that deliver new levels of agility and economic flexibility.

Cyber attacks have increased significantly as hackers become more sophisticated. Security breaches and vulnerability discoveries have been repeatedly attributed to firmware attacks.

Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) research reveals more than 50 percent of cyber security professionals reported at least one incident of malware-infected firmware in 2016.

HPE is the first company to respond by developing the “silicon root of trust” – a unique link between the custom HPE silicon and the HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) firmware to ensure servers do not execute compromised firmware code. Building this firmware security directly into the HPE silicon provides the ultimate protection against firmware attacks, as well as the ability to recover the essential server firmware automatically.

HPE’s silicon root of trust designs security directly into the iLO chip, creating an immutable fingerprint in the silicon, preventing servers from booting up unless the firmware matches the fingerprint. Because HPE has total control of its own custom-made silicon chip and the server-essential firmware, it is the only vendor in the industry that can offer this advantage. The new silicon root of trust protection includes state-of-the-art encryption and breach detection technologies and is complemented by HPE supply chain security and HPE Pointnext security assessment and protection services.

“A security breach in firmware is one of the most difficult to detect but can be one of the most damaging. Unfortunately, firmware is often overlooked in c-suite conversations about data center security, and cyber criminals are targeting this as a new attack surface,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst of technology analyst and advisory firm Moor Insights & Strategy.

“While many servers have some level of hardware security already built-in, HPE is creating firmware security inextricably tied with its custom made silicon, to help customers protect against these malicious attacks,” added Moorhead.

This new launch is just one part of HPE’s new compute experience, which also includes enhancements to its software-defined infrastructure and flexible payment models. Through this new generation of capabilities powered by HPE ProLiant Gen10, customers can accelerate business insights across a hybrid world of traditional IT, public and private cloud. With HPE’s pay-as-you-go options, customers can scale up or down based on their businesses’ need and only pay for what they actually use.

“Customers shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to security, the agility of software-defined infrastructure and the flexibility of cloud economics,” said Vikram K, Senior Director, Data Center and Hybrid Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India. “With our ProLiant Gen10 portfolio, HPE is offering customers the best compute experience in the industry with unmatched security, new ways to accelerate insights and payment models that allow customers to choose options that work best for them”.